2021 Lydia Ko Mixtape: Pre-Olympic Dip
A slick start to the 2021 LPGA Tour has turned into a kiwi winter hump for Lydia Ko, right before the Tokyo Olympics get underway. In her first five tournaments of the year, Ko finished outside the top-10 just once and Ko headed into the South East Asian leg fresh off a 2nd, 1st and then a missed cut. Missing the cut didn't impact Ko's work in Singapore and Thailand though as she put up a tied-7th and 11th before returning to United States of America.
Ko has now played four tournaments since returning to USA, all of which have been in June and Ko had one top-10 finish along with results of 35T, 61T, 52T. This has been in stark contrast of 22-year-old Nelly Korda who didn't play those two tournaments in SEA with back to back wins in June; Korda heads into the Olympics as numero tahi in the world.
Peep the trend that has wiggled through all these Lydia Ko Mixtapes as there is always a sizzling young star breaking through on the LPGA Tour as Ko once did. Women's golf continues to grow, expand and this serves as a regular reminder that the LPGA Tour is a lot different now to when Ko was emerging. Ko heads into the Olympics ranked 10th and that may be handy to paint Ko as an underdog, although Ko is still a top-tier LPGA player despite her recent results.
As of Sunday morning, mid-way through Volunteers Classic that doesn't appear to feature any Olympians, Ko is 3rd in Race to CME Globe season, 4th in Official Prize Money, 6th in Scoring Average and 3rd in total Birdies. One would expect Ko's recent results to be reflected in her stats and that's exactly the case after Ko displayed her craftiness in sand saves, approach shots and putting to keep up with the big hitting drivers. Upon returning to USA, Ko has fallen off in these stats which puts her in a tricky spot given the disparity between Ko and many of the best when hitting off the tee...
Average Driving Distance
2020: 254.41m - 57th.
2021: 260.05m - 63rd.
June: 258.11m - 69th.
Driving Accuracy
2020: 66.62% - 121st.
2021: 67.86% - 124th.
June: 63.13% - 138th.
Scoring Average
2020: 70.26.
2021: 69.03.
June: 69.96.
Greens in Regulation
2020: 68.91%.
2021: 74.44%.
June: 71.01%.
Putts Per GIR
2020: 1.77.
2021: 1.69.
June: 1.72.
Putting Average
2020: 29.13.
2021: 28.53.
June: 28.78.
Sand Saves
2020: 68.25%.
2021: 72.41%.
June: 55.56%.
I included the rankings of Ko's driving stats to show that Ko is a long way off the best in those stats, yet Ko is still among the tour's elite. That's where the grittiness angle stems from that I explored in the last mixtape and all the stats above follow the same journey of being their worst in 2020, better in 2021 prior to June and then June has these stats somewhere in the middle. This perfectly reflects Ko's journey over the past two years and wait ... 'Sand Saves' is the only stat that is worse than it was in 2020.
Last year, Ko's 68.25 percent Sand Saves still had her ranked 3rd and now her 55.56 percent is ranked 14th. This swings back around to the gritty Ko vibes as she was literally so good in getting out of a bunker and into the hole within 2 shots, that it didn't matter that Ko found herself in the bunker to start with. Swing back further to Ko's first few full years on tour and Ko's sand-saving ability has been a key factor in her success.
2014: 52.38% - 9th.
2015: 59.09% - 1st.
2016: 57.80% - 6th.
2017: 48.10% - 57th.
2018: 57.53% - 7th.
2019: 55.95% - 10th.
Ko has never been eating up driving metres off the tee, yet she was a force on tour via these gritty elements of her golf. Ko has only been outside the top-10 for Sand Saves once prior to this year (in 2020 she was 3rd) and that was during the toughest patch of Ko's career, which again comes as no surprise considering Ko's Sand Saves keep her in the mix. Right now, Ko is ranked 14th in Sand Saves and this is again evident in Ko's overall work on tour recently.
I'm no golf expert, I just love kiwi sports and follow the Aotearoa sporting excellence. I also tell stories and share this Aotearoa sporting excellence, which makes this Sand Saves thing so interesting to me as it helps lay down the story of Ko. This is not a golfer who didn't storm on to the LGPA Tour with booming drives that land smack bang in the perfect fairway spot. Ko's excellence has come while lacking that, thanks largely to her ability to make the most of whatever position she found herself after her tee shot.
Ko is out of form right now as she doesn't have that clinical touch to salvage holes that most others would stumble on. When Ko is at her best, as we've already seen this year, she is cool and clinical in adding gritty polish to finish holes. That's the key thing I'll be keeping tabs on when Ko begins her campaign for back to back Olympic medals.
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